Help Id'ing Texas Fossil

[legacylindsey]

Hello! I'm hoping for some insight from this amazingly knowledgeable community regarding a recent find.

This was discovered earlier this month in Real County, Texas. The land there is very rocky and hilly, lots of limestone.

My fiance picked these pieces up while we were hunting. The specimen was already split in two. The whiter rocky looking backside was the exposed portion and luckily he decided to check it out further.

For the last 2 evenings I have Googled myself silly looking for a similar piece and reading about fossils. I have found great info and learned a lot of the basics from this site. But I am at loss for really pinpointing what we found.

I think it is some sort of tree or plant. The white shoot down the center appears to be a pith. However, none of the tree examples I have come across have the stratification and "ruffled" layers that this has. There are lots of crystalline structures and when held just right, the area around the pith has tiny flecks that shine. They look like single specks of glitter. I don't know if it's calcified or petrified or if I'm totally off my rocker and it's just a rock.

The fiance also wants to clean it with H2O2 and I was hoping I could get some advice on whether that is the safest route.

Other info: it's all white and brown shades, the diameter, at its widest is 4.25 in. The middle, when the 2 pieces are apart, is 1.5 inches from top to bottom. When we ran it under water and lightly scrubbed it there was a heavy soil smell until it dried.

Okay that is all I have, hopefully some of it will help identify this sweet looking find.

[legacylindsey]

More pictures

[legacylindsey]

And mas

[legacylindsey]

Okay, done

[legacylindsey]

Lied. One more.

[Ludwigia]

Now that is really cool, but I'm pretty sure it's not fossilized wood or even a fossil at all. I'm inclined to think that it's a form of sinter, perhaps part of a sinter column which built up its layers in a cavernous part of the sediment stone over a good stretch of time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcareous_sinter

The mineral appears to be mostly calcite, albeit with a lot of impurities in it. It really is beautiful, though!

[Carl]

I agree with Ludwigia - it looks most like a cave formation. Gorgeous!

[FossilDAWG]

I agree it's not organic, and that it is quite attractive. Before exposing it to hydrogen peroxide I'd treat a small area first to make sure nothing adverse happens. Personally, I'd leave it as it is.

Don

[legacylindsey]

Well mystery solved, I guess. Thanks for your help everyone

[fossilized6s]

That is very cool looking!

I've learned something new.

It's pretty cool to think about the atmosphere/environment above ground changing and evolving to produce different mineral content of this. I wonder if you can date these? I guess it would all depend on your water flow or drip rate.